Tonight, the Phillies begin the first game of their home-and-home series with the Boston Red Sox. Fortunately they are avoiding Clay Buchholz and his 7-0 record as he was scratched due to a right shoulder injury. Replacing him on the hill today for Boston will be Alfredo Aceves, who is making his first start since April 23, when he gave up eight runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings.

Tyler Cloyd is pitching for the Phillies and although he grew up in Nebraska, he is a lifelong Red Sox fan. This will be his first visit to the venerable Fenway Park. Cloyd is coming off his first win of the season since being recalled to replace Roy Halladay. He has allowed 3 ER or fewer in 6 of his 8 career starts, including all five of his career starts on the road. In fact, he is 3-0 with a 2.59 ERA (9 ER, 31.1 IP) in 5 career road starts.

Overall since 2004, the Phillies are an unimpressive 9-21 against the Red Sox, while sporting a 2-7 record at Fenway Park.

It’s the unofficial start of summer. What better way to ring in the hottest of the seasons than with a beer/lemonade combo? Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy is just that. With a malted wheat and barley beginning, and a tart lemonade finish, this beer just tastes like summertime. The real beauty in it is that the lemon flavor doesn’t overpower the taste of the beer. It’s remarkably well-balanced. Have it with some barbecued pulled pork and a side of baked beans. – by Ryan

I’m usually an optimist, but this team just might be done. Have to hope Young and Young get hot before the deadline to recoup something of value. I’d trade Rollins if he would let them. Galvis should be the SS now. Heck I’d trade everyone over the age of 30 at this point. Phils need two high OBP RH bats like Heatley and Gomez. I’d

Well this is the outcome I expected and I assume most everyone else dis as well. Cant expect Cloyd to come to fenway and pitch well in that park against a good Red Sox team. Not to mention the Phillies typically have lots of trouble with them whether they are good or not.

Ryan Howard is uncoachable. Last at bat of the game. Two very hittable pitches he just watches. Then he swings at an outside pitch.Three pitches and a strikeout. The guy flat out stinks. He’s a real parasite, sucking down payroll and contributing little

Seriously need to blow it up. Keep Brown, Galvis, Frandsen(utility guy) and maybe Chooch. Every other position player can and should go. I guess Utley could come back, but I’d limit him to 100 games. have to pray the tradable pieces turn things around before the deadline.

A solid win a few nights ago; Pettibone is doing very well, and keeping his composure out there. I would like to see Brown move up in the order, but it might put too much pressure on him. In the end, moving him up would benefit the team, and at the MLB level, he is going to have to learn how to deal with pressures of all sorts. However, Cloyd, while performing decently as a full-in, could not hold off a very good Red Sox team. Of course, their fill-in pitcher mystified the Phillies’ hitters.
On a lighter note, maybe we can resurrect the ghost of HOF Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians, who, I think only struck out 115 times in his career. (This is where the sabermetrics guys show that strikeouts aren’t that big a deal). Anyway, even on his worst day, Joe could teach the Big Piece how to get some wood on the ball:

For example, in 1930, Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians, who fanned only three times in 353 at-bats during the season, was struck out twice in the same game by Pat Caraway of the White Sox, and that was a bad day for him.

Would it be sabremetrics to point out that the Braves average 9.14 K’s per game (compared to 7.29 for the Phillies), have a slightly worse team BA than the Phillies and score nearly one run more per game than the Phillies? 17 MLB teams have struck out more than the Phillies. Two big differences between the offenses are that the Braves are 5th in BB’s and 2nd in HR’s while the Phils are 25th and 23rd respectively in both categories.

Phils really need to decide which direction they’re going in. For example, Franco is a stud that is sure to be a top 100 prospect the way he’s going. Doing great at Clearwater and still 20(soon to be 21). Do they package him for Heatley? Obviously a lot more goes. More fun to think of this stuff than the way they’re playing. Sure wish we had that 1st rd pick we gave up for Papplebon because RAJ doesn’t care about the price.

You should change “there will be no…” to “there SHOULD be no…” There’s no predicting what the Phils’ front office is thinking these days, and someone up there still might think they’re in a pennant race even if they have a .470 won/loss percentage at the deadline.

My own feeling is that they should not be buyers under any circumstances, because the team’s future is in the minor leagues, and not in the current collection of has beens on the ML roster. Even if they still seem to have a shot at the second wild card, they should just let things play out. There’s just no sense trading away prospects who might help next year (and which they barely have, anyway) in a pathetic attempt to reach the postseason, where they’d most likely just embarrass themselves anyway.

I agree George, but is in situations like this team’s current one where I wonder if the goals of the GM differ from what might be in the team’s best interests. If Amaro thinks that his job is on the line and tries to mortgage the future for a long-shot run at the post-season, I would hope that ownership would nix it. However, if ownership is in a position where they have to nix the GM’s decisions, shouldn’t ownership have already found a new GM?